Skip to main content
Larry Brown Sports Tagline. Brown Bag it, Baby.
#pounditFriday, March 29, 2024

April Fools’ Day pranks from the sports world – a recap

There were plenty of April Fools’ Day pranks run in the sports world on Monday, so we decided to recap them. Some were as simple as a tweet or two, while others were slightly more elaborate.

Let’s take a look at some of the April Fools’ Day pranks from the sports world.

CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER SAYS LEBRON JAMES RE-SIGNED WITH CAVS

LeBron re-signs Cavaliers

LeBron James had one of the most bitter splits with a professional sports team in recent memory, but the anger between Cleveland fans and James seems to have dissipated lately. Some fans are even dying to have him back. The Cleveland Plain Dealer appealed to those fans with a headline on their sports section Monday, though they really weren’t trying to hard to fool readers (did you notice the sub-headline?).

Cleveland newspaper runs LeBron James headline [The Basketball Jones]

49ERS ANNOUNCE LAUNCH OF JIM HARBAUGH CLOTHING LINE

Jim Harbaugh Collection

The San Francisco 49ers put some effort into their prank. At 8:00 a.m. PT Monday, the team’s Twitter account told its followers to tune in for a merchandise-related announcement they would be making an hour later. They then linked to a phony press release — complete with quotes from Jim Harbaugh — announcing the creation of a Harbaugh clothing line called the “Jim Harbaugh Collection.” They even created a photo gallery of the clothing line. We’ll give them a 10 out of 10 for effort, but a zero in plausibility. Could you ever see Jim Harbaugh getting into fashion? Neither could we.

49ers launching Jim Harbaugh clothing collection [Shutdown Corner]

AGENT FOR ERIC WEDDLE SAYS CLIENT WAS TRADED TO BRONCOS

Agent David Canter tried to pull a fast one on everyone. He told client Eric Weddle, who signed a five-year, $40 million contract with the San Diego Chargers before the 2011 season, that he had been traded to the Denver Broncos. Canter even sent tweets Monday to fake out his followers:

After all those tweets, Canter really had people fooled. Some reporters actually thought Weddle had been traded. But then Canter finally came clean:

NFL agent pranks client Eric Weddle [Laces Out]

JOSE CANSECO SAYS HE IS GETTING MARRIED

Jose Canseco is always up to something on Twitter. When he’s not sharing paintings of Bud Selig, or campaigning for jobs, or sharing his thoughts on global warming, the former slugger is pulling pranks.

First, Canseco sent this:

Unfortunately he didn’t allow any time for rumination. He cleared things up a minute later.

Jose Canseco pulls a fast one on his Twitter followers [SI Extra Mustard]

NICK BARNETT SAYS HE RE-SIGNED WITH BUFFALO BILLS

Linebacker Nick Barnett was released by the Bills in February after failing his physical. He spent the past two seasons with the team, and he said Monday the franchise was bringing him back:

Turns out it was just wishful thinking from Barnett.

He even told Bills running back Fred Jackson to put in the good word with Bills GM Buddy Nix for him:

Nick Barnett gets Bills fans [Pro Football Talk]

HOUSTON COACH PRANKS EVERYONE ABOUT TEAM’S LOGO

Houston April Fools logo

Tony Levine has a history of pranking people on April Fools’ Day, and this year was no different. Levine, who is entering his second season as head coach of the Cougars, tried convincing fans that the school was going to be using a new logo that includes an “O” to represent the school’s full name — the University of Houston. The school even wrote up a press release about the matter complete with a funny quote from Levine about the “O” not getting enough respect before they later revealed it was just a prank.

Houston coach Tony Levine pranks everyone with team’s logo [Dr. Saturday]

MIKE TYSON SAYS HE IS REMOVING HIS FACE TATTOO

Mike Tyson’s face tattoo has become an iconic part of the former heavyweight champion’s image. It also seems to suit his crazy, unpredictable personality perfectly. So when Tyson said Monday that he was removing the tattoo, it caused people to instantly wonder if he was taking up life on the straight and narrow.

After plenty of people fell for the act (including us), Tyson cleared things up.

Tyson got the tattoo in 2003. He says of his decision to get it, “I thought it was a cool tattoo.”

Mike Tyson says he’s getting his face tattoo removed [Black Sports Online]

DARRELLE REVIS’ NEW CAR

Darrelle Revis car

Revis tried faking out his followers Monday by tweeting, “Check out my new whip, it’s dope right!!!! Lol.”

Nobody was buying that one. Not unless it was Antonio Garay tweeting the picture.

[Darrelle Revis Instagram]

And if you missed it at LBS earlier, Rory McIlroy fell for Google’s April Fools’ hoax.

Did you see any other good pranks that we missed? Let us know!

.

Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast!

Sports News Minute Podcast
comments powered by Disqus